May 26, 2007 (5/26/07) "First Magical Med Cruise!!" (The M&M's!)

[Hygiene99]

Has anyone heard whether or not Disney will have special pins to commemorate the different ports of call for the Mediterranean cruise? I hesitate to ask knowing what grief those of us who were on the inaugaral Panama canal cruise went through to get those pins .... but I know that Disney learned much from that experience so I would expect any pin distribution to be much less problematic.

Marie

Marie

Checked with a big pin fan friend, and She has heard nothing!

 

[sweetsue]

Being the compulsive planner (and ensuring success while traveling with my Mother, the queen of "all things should be properly planned to ever avoid a surprise"), I have begun my Excel cruise week planner. It lists all of my known activities throughout the cruise, before and beyond. It's easy to use before the navigator shows up. And once you do get a navigator, it's easy to figure out what stuff you'll miss. It's just a simple TV guide style.

If anyone would like a copy of said planning sheet, PM me your email and I will be glad to pass it on.

Excel is my friend!!!!

But truthfully - I never used to plan like this until travelling with my DNana. She just doesn't handle the hurdles of travel well, always needs to KNOW what's going to happen, and wants to verify there is a PLAN. Thus - the Excel spreadsheet. What she doesn't know is that I already have several alternatives in mind should any of ten thousand small travel nuisances arise including rain, theft, illness or medical emergency. Then again - once I start the cruise out with a massage, DNana is game for most any change - and the nuisances just melt away!

Sue

 

[icunurse_celeste]

Acqua Al Due boasts the best steak in Florence. Famous for the “blueberry” and “balsamic steak”, as well as the “salad sampler”


I wonder if this place is open for lunch? It is supposed to be amazing! http://acquaal2.it/restyle/ing/indexing.html Anybody able to speak Italian??


How about some gelato? http://www.vivoli.it/vivoli-en.html
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/florence/0051010028.html


This girl is living in Florence for a year and she posted some photos of Pisa- the church and tower- very, very beautiful inside.
http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/2907/-It-really-does-lean--Pisa-12

 

[Kissimmee]

The family is fretting over the choice of staying on our June 6th 10 day Cruise vs. booking the first 11 day back to back with the crossing cruise?

The big issue was the pets three dogs, the cat, 5 goats a chicken and 4 bunnies.

Resolving that I'm leaning toward the 25 lbs .... I mean 25 days back to back cruises.

Are any others taking this route. Will we get (cat 12) cabin fever?

 

[Hygiene99]

The family is fretting over the choice of staying on our June 6th 10 day Cruise vs. booking the first 11 day back to back with the crossing cruise?

The big issue was the pets three dogs, the cat, 5 goats a chicken and 4 bunnies.

Resolving that I'm leaning toward the 25 lbs .... I mean 25 days back to back cruises.

Are any others taking this route. Will we get (cat 12) cabin fever?

There are atleast a half dozen or so!!

We are not, but,

Go for It!!!!

 

[kpros]

Good Morning Everyone! Another day closer to the cruise!!!!

Ken

 

[icunurse_celeste]

Good Morning Everyone! Another day closer to the cruise!!!!

Ken

Thank you Ken! I actually tried sleeping at night last night, like a real person. However, I was wide awake from 2 to 3am.


This group is just so quiet, I don't know what to make of it.

Do we have any group activities other than the wine & cheese get together? Any pj breakfast? Anything?

 

[meb51]

Checked with a big pin fan friend, and She has heard nothing!

Thanks for checking. I had our pins framed from the Panama Canal cruise and that was a nice memento. I'm hoping Disney has a pin for each port we visit in on the Mediterranean cruise.

Marie

 

[sweetsue]

Thank you Ken! I actually tried sleeping at night last night, like a real person. However, I was wide awake from 2 to 3am.


This group is just so quiet, I don't know what to make of it.

Do we have any group activities other than the wine & cheese get together? Any pj breakfast? Anything?

NOTHING! Do you believe it????? I think everyone is so busy planning what we're going to do in the Europe ports that we'll only have time to collapse on the sea days!

We don't even have a sailaway party organized. GEESH!

 

[kpros]

This group is just so quiet, I don't know what to make of it.

Do we have any group activities other than the wine & cheese get together? Any pj breakfast? Anything?

With so many port days, I think people will put a high value on the three sea days for relaxing.

Without Elaine to set it up - no pj breakfast.

Ken

 

[renegade7]

I know this has been answered here somewhere before, but didn't land on it when scanning a few of the pages. What time can we start boarding at the Port in Barcelona? I know we need to be on before 9 for the lifeboat drill.

Port Information from DCL website
Checking in at the Port of Barcelona
The Disney Cruise Line® terminal opens at 10:00 a.m. and boarding begins around 1:00 p.m. At check-in, you need to present all required documentation and proof of citizenship for each member of your party. Disney Cruise Line® representatives will be on hand to direct you to the appropriate check-in station.


I also was told when I called that boarding is from 1-4 pm. Not sure if the 4 pm is left over from the Caribbean cruises or if they want everyone to check-in by 4 pm and then just be back on before the 9 pm departure.

 

[sweetsue]

Port Information from DCL website
Checking in at the Port of Barcelona
The Disney Cruise Line® terminal opens at 10:00 a.m. and boarding begins around 1:00 p.m. At check-in, you need to present all required documentation and proof of citizenship for each member of your party. Disney Cruise Line® representatives will be on hand to direct you to the appropriate check-in station.


I also was told when I called that boarding is from 1-4 pm. Not sure if the 4 pm is left over from the Caribbean cruises or if they want everyone to check-in by 4 pm and then just be back on before the 9 pm departure.

A lot of that info seemed to be leftover from the Caribbean cruises. DCL said we didn't have to be onboard until 9pm, although I don't know if that meant you could check in until 9.

Sue

 

[icunurse_celeste]

With so many port days, I think people will put a high value on the three sea days for relaxing.

Without Elaine to set it up - no pj breakfast.

Ken

This just doesn't feel right.... Everyone is so quiet, no mass group activities....am I really on the disboards? There are going to be all these strangers with lanyards!


More friends to get to know

 

[milestogo]

Compulsive Planners Unite!!!!

We've been so busy preparing to be able to leave for 5 weeks, it is hard to keep up with all the posts. But I sure appreciate all the information.

Kissimmee: There are 8 excited families doing the Back to Back cruises. Do join us!

Precruise meet: Disneyland's Downtown Disney, Naples Restaurant patio dining. Tentative date: Thursday 4/12/07 Time: TBD. We will try to plan one more on a Sunday as well. This is planned on a weekday because Littleowensmommy will be out here that week. We have a few people coming from the repo as well (since we are B2B'ers.

 

[milestogo]

This cruise is so busy with excursions (really, really long excursions), so it certainly is much harder to plan any extra disboard events. I'm sure by the end of the summer the cruisers will know what to expect on the med cruise much more than we can heading into the unknown!

 

[sunshine state kim]

We still haven't worked out all our plans yet!

For Naples:
We're going to get to Pompeii on our own. Right now I am thinking we'll take the train from Naples to Pompeii and then continue on the train to Sorrento and then take a ferry or hydrofoil back to Naples.

For Palermo:
Still pretty clueless. Nothing in the excursions jumped out at me and I just don't have a feel for how well you can get around on your own. Some of the ports in the Caribbean let you off right near a decent shopping area and in others you are out in the middle of no-where. It might be nice to just walk around in Palermo and do some shopping since there are no "must see" things for me right now.

Cell phone:
I just bought one of those $49 Mobal cell phones for Europe. I now need to figure out how to use it! Lots of numbers are involved. I'm probably just better off handing it to my 13 year old daughter who will be text messaging Italians in no time.

I haven't really even looked at what we'll really do in Barcelona. We're getting there the 24th so have a little time to settle in and not feel in a rush to see 3000 years of history in 8 hours like everywhere else we're going.

Once we head out for the airport I'm going to try desparately to relax, enjoy and go with the flow.

 

[renegade7]

Just thought I would pass this on to everyone else. I got my phone (Motorola V557) 1 year and 3 months ago and have the 450 minute plan with 5000 night/weekend minutes.

I just got off the phone with Cingular (now AT&T). They told me my phone is international calling/receiving capable and that I have the Expanded International Feature already on my phone (no additional charge). I just need to power off and back on when I arrive at each country and I should be good to go.

Sounds to good to be true - so I will again closer to the sail date just to be sure. I am guessing that the fee for the calls will be extravagant. We have a girl from Ireland in our office so will be checking with her on these things as well.

 

[sweetsue]

Just thought I would pass this on to everyone else. I got my phone (Motorola V557) 1 year and 3 months ago and have the 450 minute plan with 5000 night/weekend minutes.

I just got off the phone with Cingular (now AT&T). They told me my phone is international calling/receiving capable and that I have the Expanded International Feature already on my phone (no additional charge). I just need to power off and back on when I arrive at each country and I should be good to go.

Sounds to good to be true - so I will again closer to the sail date just to be sure. I am guessing that the fee for the calls will be extravagant. We have a girl from Ireland in our office so will be checking with her on these things as well.

Per the Motorola team, Cingular and TMobile should work on GSM. But you need to be on the right plan and it'll cost a fortune. The good (or not so good news), your phone number will still work. HOWEVER - my understanding is you will pay the international rate for the call since you're actually out of country. So that phone call from the dry cleaners telling you your shirts are ready could cost you $$$$.
Your other option with a GSM phone is to buy a new SIM in-country. This is like a prepaid card and you can use it however you want. The good news is you don't have to buy a phone AND the cost for calls is cheaper. The bad news is it will have a new European phone number.
The band of experts we have at work suggests buying a cheap phone in country on your arrival. Their other option was to have work fund the plan.
I'd ask a LOT of questions about costs, roaming, etc. in all of the ports we will be at before buying anything. You don't want to pay $100 for a call that tells you your son's baseball practice is cancelled that week.

Sue

 

[sweetsue]

Here is rate info for Cingular assuming you are calling in an area where their reciprocal carrier resides. The rates are for call that you make and calls that you receive to your home number. The roaming isn't based on who called you, but where you are in relation to where your home phone is. So - if your neighbor called your cell phone number and you were in Spain, you would pay Spain roaming rates. If your hotel in Spain called your cell phone number, THEY would pay international rates and YOU would pay Spain roaming rates.

These are per MINUTE charges!

Sue

Spain, Italy, France
Roaming:
Calls Placed/Received
While in Spain Cingular Standard International Roaming $1.29
Cingular World Traveler $0.99
Cingular Canada $1.29
Cingular Mexico $1.29

Text, Picture and
Video Messages: Send Text Message $0.50 per message sent
Send Picture and Video Messages $1.30 per message sent
Receive Text, Picture and Video Messages Home pay-per-use or package rates apply to all text, picture or video messages received when roaming internationally. Please visit www.cingular.com for details.

Spain and Italy's primary reciprocal carrier is Vodaphone. France's primary reciprocal carrier is Orange. Coverage maps are available on Cingular's website if you want them.

It is unknown what carrier you'd pick up aboard ship while we're at sea - and at what cost.

 

[icunurse_celeste]

Okay- has anyone used the treatment suites?? Is it worth the money?? I could use some good time in the spa tub- but is it worth the bizillion dollars?? I would enjoy sitting on the balcony post massage and tub.


I'm taking a break from studying to do laundry and listen to the disboards podcast- I recommend listening to it.